I have been writing for a number of years now. Nothing too sexy–marketing copy, blog posts (personal and professional), articles and columns, the occasional anecdote or blurb in a magazine. In some instances, such as writing for the local paper, I had to use my legal name even though by then I had decided to separate the personal from the professional using a variation of my given name.

When I began writing fiction, I thought I would use my original variation–L. Catharine Tayler–but many of my non-fiction credentials are under that name. Also, I want something shorter and easier to remember when my romances are eventually published. (And they will be published…I don’t give up easily!) I needed a new pen name.

Thus… Cate Tayler was born.

I haven’t been keeping up on blogging lately (as any following this blog can attest), as I have to put the business of writing first. Which means polishing manuscripts, writing synopses, submitting to agents and publishers, starting new manuscripts, etc. So, although I may still update this blog occasionally, I’m moving over to www.CateTayler.com as my primary. I’d love it if you’d join me.

You can still find me on Twitter (I haven’t changed my handle there just yet), my new FB page, Pinterest, and Tumblr. Though, to be honest, my Tumblr feed is mostly reblogs of writing tips and quotes, and anything related to Haven and Arrow (I’m just a little obsessed). Consider yourself warned.

Here you see the inspiration for my blog’s name. (Love that Neil Gaiman!)

I am someone easily inspired by beautiful words, so this Buzzfeed list is right up my alley! If you need a little inspiration in your writing life, bookmark this link so you can return to it whenever you need a mini-pep talk or to remember why it is you write: Buzzfeed’s 24 Quotes That Will Inspire You to Write More

Or better yet, print out your favorites and tack them on the wall where you write so inspiration is just a matter of glancing up from the keyboard every now and then.

I’ve just finished the first draft of my second novel and I’m fairly pleased with the result. Now it’s off to the beta readers, then more revision, then off to my critique partners, then more revision–and repeat.

I came across this Irving quote this morning as I was putting together a handout for the parents of my young writers club members and it sang to me on more than one level. Just like a novel, life is one great, unfinished manuscript, one that we spend a lot of time trying to perfect and never quite achieve. Unlike an actual manuscript, however, we can’t so easily erase our “shitty first drafts“.

But…we can revise. We can improve. We can choose better, stronger, kinder words, and show our feelings through action instead of dialogue. We can change our actions if they don’t ring true for our character. (Or for the character we wish to be.) We can cut out those characters who don’t bring value to our story, or worse, turn it into horror or tragedy. Likewise, we can give those quirky or unassuming characters a more prominent place in our plot. Maybe we can’t delete that first draft, but we can certainly go on to write a new one.

Life is full of plot points that go nowhere, subplots that take over our main theme, heroes and villains and spunky sidekicks that jump off the page–sometimes unexpectedly. Through it all, we keep on writing our story–living one moment after another, revising when necessary.